Running 135 miles across Death Valley and back in July and other ultra adventures

Scatter my ashes here...

scatter my ashes in the desert...

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Pink Boa 5K and Running Reminders

I know I should be running, but I sort of ended up taking the week off. So far I haven't run a step. My weeks go from Monday to Sunday, so there's still room for a run tomorrow.

I had a vendor table at the Pink Boa 5K this weekend, for my business. The race itself is for a nonprofit here, Hope Lives, that provides free services to women with breast cancer in the community.

It's a great organization and I wish they could extend it to other cancers, and of course include men with breast cancer.

I'm not big into pinkification myself, as I've said before. But I do know where this money is going, and it's not to an administrative and overhead-heavy organization. It's run on a minimum of staff and directly benefits the real people in the community. As it should. And since it's about people with cancer it is directly related to my business.

I filed for trademark number two yesterday. In and out with the attorney this time. This is my life these days, when I'm having to do the less enjoyable tasks, like finishing the e-commerce site and time-consuming things like writing a terms of service agreement, you know, those million page legal documents that nobody ever reads, they just check the "I agree" box so they can get on with their life. Well I have to write one. So I'm doing it in small doses. Ugh. If only it were as simple as "I agree".

These days I prefer to just be focusing on writing good content for the services I will roll out later in the year, which will make it completely different than the way it looks now. There's a lot to do, and I have to teach myself to limit my availability so I have more chunks of uninterrupted time to work. I'm still figuring out this self-employment thing, finding my most productive times for doing various tasks. The thing that's been neglected, of course, is running.

As evidenced by my growing thighs, butt and mountain bike tire and my current lack of shorts that fit me. All of my shorts are tight across the butt, so much that I'm embarrassed to wear them. I can't afford a new wardrobe now, so my only real alternative is to stretch my big girl panties over my butt, employ a little self-discipline, quit eating like a maniac and drinking beer, and work harder than a stroll on my feet.

In running, there's been nothing this week, but I have big plans for next week. In addition to getting my lazy butt out the door to run for at least an hour most days, I'd really like to spend a whole day running so I will see about doing a solstice day run.

They still haven't caught the shooter so I'm sticking to Fort Collins. I'd like to do as much moving on my feet as possible and I don't want to be waiting around for things like donuts and beer. I'll see if anyone wants to join me for parts of it regardless, hell, maybe THEY can fetch the donuts and beer...but I'm not interested in having someone chattering in my ear for hours. I just need to get out there and MOVE. Forward. At a steady pace.

The daylight lasts for 15 hours and 5 minutes on June 21 so I think that's a reasonable amount of time to be out and get 100 km or more in at a relaxed pace. I anticipate doing mostly walking anyway.

Which reminds me, my damn iPod died! I don't know how it happened but it hasn't been the same since I ran that 12 hour run in March in Arvada and stupidly stuck the thing in my bra. Now I can't even get the thing to turn on when I charge it. I killed it with my sweaty boobs.

Guess I better find a new one quickly. Next Sunday is solstice.

I am going to crew for Bob Becker on his return trip from Whitney to Badwater this summer. I know it will be tough, but fun. I have so much work to do, I can't be away too long. Megan asked me if I wanted to carpool with her and Ray to do medical at the race again this year, but I told her I can't. I do want to get out there to see Don Meyer, Ben and Denise Jones, the medical people, and John Vonhof, maybe climb Whitney if we can get permits, and then crew Bob.

I'd like to get back out to Death Valley and really see the sights and explore different parts of the valley that I've never seen before, but other than that I'm done with the circus. I like the fact that Badwater is a smaller event, it's not like the major 100 milers that have become outright circuses, but Badwater does have its own unique brand of mini-drama. Any race with that kind of fanfare and mystique takes on a circus-like atmosphere.

It's like the time I was stopped in the middle of the road to Stovepipe Wells by a foreign documentary film crew with a big fuzzy microphone when I was five seconds from barfing and being asked, "Why are you doing it? Do you feel compelled to do this?" I'm not an animal in the zoo. That's why I've never done Western States or gone back to Leadville. That's also why I've never run New York or Boston, and I avoid Rock N Roll, Bolder Boulder, and those other mass humanity races.

Maybe it's just me, but I've never been one of those people who can go back year after year after year which turns into decade after decade, like my friend Kirk Apt, who runs the same race 20 or more years in a row. I'm just not made that way. It's been 10 years of some aspect of Badwater for me, and I think that's plenty.

I love the people I've met along the way at Badwater (well, most!), I am so glad I experienced it from all those different angles, and it's been a huge part of my life for a long time. But we move on. There are other adventures to explore in life. I might even decide to go back in the future sometime, but the way I feel right now, I'm sorta done.

No I'm not changing the name of the blog or the nature of the blog. It will still be Journey to Badwater, that name is just a metaphor anyway, as you've seen if you've hung around this blog for any period of time, my life and running are about so much more than Badwater.

Dale and Katy are going with me on the Rim to Rim to Rim in October. We were able to get reservations on the rim the nights before and after, and the three way split is good because it's expensive.

I need to keep reminding myself because the hills are going to be important this summer. Rock Repeats and Longs Peak, and other climbs. If I can train for that, I should be in a better place to look at returning to running ultras next year. And I also need to remind myself what it feels like to carry an extra 20 pounds of LARD down and up and down and up the Grand Canyon too, so I can lose the lard before then.

All I need are daily reminders, did you do your run today? That will be enough to annoy me so much I have to run away.

We Keep On Running...

About Me

I started running in 1984 and ran my first ultra in 1991. I wanted to run Badwater ever since I heard about Ben Jones cooling himself down with an ice-filled body bag. I achieved my longtime dream in July 2008 when I crossed the Badwater finish line in just over 47 hours. In 2011, I ran the race again, then returned on foot to Badwater, a round trip of 270 miles.
My health, fitness, ability, and desire to run ultramarathons are a gift I can give to others who face challenges to their health and well-being.
I am a health coach and cancer exercise trainer, and I'm passionate about empowering people to live life at their best.
My dream is to transform health care so it is truly about health and care, and bring the nursing profession into modern times by elevating the grassroots voices of working nurses.
Life is an ultra, and every finish line is the starting line of the next adventure.

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photo credit: Kristi Mayo/Mile 90 Photography

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Disclaimer

The posts expressed on this blog ever since its inception are, have always been, and always will be in the future, my personal opinions. I occasionally stray to topics outside of running, from nursing, health care and social justice issues, to cell phones, menopause and beer, and those are also my personal opinions, and they belong exclusively to me, not to any individual person outside of my body or any corporate, government, profit-driven or not-for-profit entity...full text of disclaimer